While Hurricane Irene had officials along the East Coast preparing for mass evacuations, scientists at the Stroud Water Research Center and the University of Delaware were grabbing their best data collection tools and heading straight for the storm's path. It was a rare opportunity for the scientists to learn more about climate change and water quality, as Irene threatened to be the biggest hurricane to hit the Northeastern United States since 1985. Center scientist Anthony Aufdenkampe explains, "It rains on average once per week, or 15 percent of the year, but streams ...

There is something unusual, beguiling and quietly engaging about the latest show, French Escapades, at the Red Rag Modern Art Gallery in Bath (which opens on 18 September). It is not that Bath is twinned with a French town (Aix-en-Provence) though that is interesting. Nor is it that it is an exhibition of exceptionally high quality paintings of France by highly skilled contemporary artists, though that might be captivating in itself. It is more its celebration of a timeless journey into memory and reverie that strikes an inner chord - it is a show where it is easy to lose ...

Contact: Michael Bernstein m_bernstein@acs.org 303-228-8532 (Aug. 25-Sept. 1) 202-872-6042 (Before Aug. 25) Michael Woods m_woods@acs.org 303-228-8532 (Aug. 25-Sept. 1) 202-872-6293 (Before Aug. 25) American Chemical Society Unfounded pesticide concerns adversely affect the health of low-income populations DENVER, Aug. 30, 2011 — The increasingly prevalent notion that expensive organic fruits and vegetables are safer because pesticides — used to protect traditional crops from insects, thus ensuring high crop yields and making them less expensive — are ...

Contact: Michael Bernstein m_bernstein@acs.org 303-228-8532 (Aug. 25-Sept. 1) 202-872-6042 (Before Aug. 25) Michael Woods m_woods@acs.org 303-228-8532 (Aug. 25-Sept. 1) 202-872-6293 (Before Aug. 25) American Chemical Society Epic search for evidence of life on Mars heats up with focus on high-tech instruments DENVER, Aug. 30, 2011 — Scientists are expressing confidence that questions about life on Mars, which have captured human imagination for centuries, finally may be answered, thanks in part to new life-detection tools up to 1,000 times more sensitive ...

San Diego's leading gold buyer and gold refinery, San Diego Jewelry Buyers, has issued a warning about illegal gold buyers operating in San Diego County and Southern California. "There have been a number of reports lately that illegal gold buyers are deceiving the public and fueling local crime," says Carl Blackburn, owner of San Diego Jewelry Buyers (SDJB). According to Blackburn, these rogue gold buyers operate without the required second-hand dealers license and fail to follow mandatory procedures when buying gold from the public--such as requiring photo ...

Contact: Michael Bernstein m_bernstein@acs.org 303-228-8532 (Aug. 25-Sept. 1) 202-872-6042 (Before Aug. 25) Michael Woods m_woods@acs.org 303-228-8532 (Aug. 25-Sept. 1) 202-872-6293 (Before Aug. 25) American Chemical Society New tests for 'legal marijuana,' 'bath salts' and other emerging designer drugs DENVER, Aug. 30, 2011 — Scientists today reported development of much needed new tests to help cope with a wave of deaths, emergency room visits and other problems from a new genre of designer drugs sold legally in stores and online that mimic the effects ...

Students are stigmatized for a variety of reasons, with youths from ethnic-minority backgrounds often feeling devalued in school. New research on young children from a range of backgrounds has found that even elementary school children are aware of such stigmatization and, like older youths, feel more anxious about school as a result. Children who are stigmatized are more likely to have less interest in school, yet ethnic-minority children in this study reported high interest in school in the face of stigma. For some students, feeling close to people at school helps them ...

As children move toward adolescence, they rely increasingly on close relationships with peers. Socially withdrawn children, who have less contact with peers, may miss out on the support that friendships provide. In a new study about the peer relationships of almost 2,500 fifth graders who are socially withdrawn in different ways and those who aren't withdrawn, researchers have found that withdrawn children who can be described as "anxious-solitary" differ considerably in their relationships with peers, compared to other withdrawn children and children who aren't withdrawn. The ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Many wonder why bullies bully, but a new study looks at the other side of the equation: How do children respond to bullying and why? The answer, researchers say, may lead to more effective interventions to reduce the negative consequences – and perhaps even the frequency – of bullying. The study appears in the journal Child Development. "The main question we were interested in is how do children go about selecting strategies for dealing with harassment from their peers?" said University of Illinois psychology professor Karen Rudolph, who led the study. ...

Cruise1st has added a new Cruise Destinations section to its site, dedicated to providing customers with essential information on the cheap cruises which are available. With the motto Second to None, Cruise1st offers its customer's luxury cruises at affordable prices. Offering cheap cruises deals to some of the most sought after destinations on the globe, Cruise1st specialises in luxurious packages. Cruise1st claims there is no better way to see the world than on a cruise with the chance to wake up in a new location every day. With the wide array of cruise liners ...

Opening September 15th, The Aurora Gallery is proud to host an all-new series from renowned New York City graffiti artist and muralist Hector "Nicer" Nazario. The series, entitled Like a Child at Play, began taking shape after the tragic death of Nicer's only child by a stray bullet in the Bronx in July 2010. Each piece in Like a Child at Play features painted works interpreting Nicer's childhood memories of growing up in New York. This event is free to enter. All works are available for purchase. "In many ways putting together this series of paintings ...

Second and third graders who are bullied react in a variety of ways—from discussing the problem or striking back to seeking emotional support. A new study in the journal Child Development has found that the types of goals children set in their relationships help determine how they respond to being bullied—and whether they choose responses that are effective. The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. "Bullying has become a significant focus of media attention and public health concern," according to Karen D. Rudolph, professor ...

During childhood and adolescence, children develop the ability to remember not only past events but the origin of those memories. For example, someone may remember meeting a particular person and the context in which he or she met that person. New research from Germany has found that the ability to remember the origin of memories is a relatively long process that matures during adolescence but isn't fully developed until adulthood. The study, by researchers at Saarland University, appears in the journal Child Development. Its findings have implications for the legal arena ...

Children with difficult temperaments are often the most affected by the quality of their relationships with their caregivers. New research suggests that highly irritable children who have secure attachments to their mothers are more likely to get along well with others than those who aren't securely attached. These findings, from researchers at the University of Maryland, are published in the journal Child Development. Researchers followed 84 infants from birth to age 2. About a third were characterized as highly irritable, while two-thirds were characterized as moderately ...

Relationships between mothers and their sons change during childhood and adolescence. However, not all relationships change in the same way, and how the relationships change may affect boys' behavior when they become teens. Those are the findings of a new longitudinal study of low-income families by researchers at Wayne State University, Oklahoma State University, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Montreal, and the University of Oregon. The study appears in the journal Child Development. The researchers looked at 265 mother-son pairs from low-income families ...

Pardee Homes has announced that they have reduced prices on move-in ready townhomes at Highlands Village at Carmel Country Highlands. The builder is offering this special for a limited time on their popular Plan 1 and Plan 1X models, and will also include $10,000 towards HOA dues or closing costs. "This is great time to buy and an exceptional opportunity to live the Carmel Valley lifestyle without the typical Carmel Valley price," said Rachel Collins, director of sales for Pardee Homes. "Coastal-close Highlands Village offers affordability, location, lifestyle ...

A simple finger prick test during routine eye examinations at high street opticians could help to identify millions of people with previously undiagnosed Type 2 diabetes, according to new research. The researchers suggest earlier diagnosis could set people on the road to better management of the disease, which is the leading cause of blindness in the working age population, and that this could ultimately result in cost-savings for the NHS. The Durham University study suggests that screening for the condition in unconventional settings, such as opticians, chiropodists ...

An editorial this week in PLoS Medicine concludes that in the two years since extensive ghostwriting by pharmaceutical giant Wyeth to promote its hormone drug Prempro was exposed through litigation intervention by PLoS Medicine and The New York Times, medical ghostwriting remains a prevalent problem with few concrete solutions in sight. This week also sees the launch of the PLoS Ghostwriting Collection, which documents everything published across the PLoS journals on the topic. Among these are three new articles published earlier this month in PLoS Medicine that provide ...

STANFORD, Calif. — A team at the Stanford University School of Medicine has cataloged, down to the letter, exactly what parts of the genetic code are essential for survival in one bacterial species, Caulobacter crescentus. They found that 12 percent of the bacteria's genetic material is essential for survival under laboratory conditions. The essential elements included not only protein-coding genes, but also regulatory DNA and, intriguingly, other small DNA segments of unknown function. The other 88 percent of the genome could be disrupted without harming the bacteria's ...

Neonatal mortality—deaths in newborns, aged 3 weeks and under— has declined in all regions of the world over the past two decades but in 2009, more than half of all neonatal deaths occurred in five countries—India, Nigeria, Pakistan, China, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Furthermore, over the past 20 years, more than 4% of all babies born live in India died during the first month of life. These shocking findings come from a comprehensive and detailed analysis led by Mikkel Z Oestergaard, from the World Health Organization and partners published in this week's ...

Mobile phone positioning data can be used to monitor population movements during disasters and outbreaks, according to a study published in this week's PLoS Medicine. The study, conducted by Linus Bengtsson and colleagues from the Karolinska Institute, Sweden and Columbia University, USA, finds that reports on the location of populations affected and in need of assistance can be generated within hours of receiving data. Population movements after disasters make it difficult to deliver essential relief assistance to the right places and at the right scale. In this geospatial ...

In dengue-endemic areas such as South-East Asia, in contrast to conventional thinking, rural areas rather than cities may bear the highest burden of dengue fever—a viral infection that causes sudden high fever, severe headache, and muscle and joint pains, and can lead to a life-threatening condition, dengue hemorrhagic fever. In a study led by Wolf-Peter Schmidt from the Nagasaki Institute of Tropical Medicine, Japan, and published in this week's PLoS Medicine, the authors analysed a population in Kanh-Hoa Province in south-central Vietnam (~350,000 people) that was affected ...

In the conclusion to a three-part series of articles addressing the current challenges and opportunities for the development of Health Policy and Systems Research (HPSR), Sara Bennett of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore USA and colleagues lay out an agenda for action to help build the field: 1) local actors, including policy-makers and researchers, must have a greater say in determining the nature of HPSR conducted; 2) a better shared understanding of theoretical frames and methodological approaches for HPSR, including journals, methods training, ...

August 31, 2011 – The digestive system is home to a myriad of viruses, but how they are involved in health and disease is poorly understood. In a study published online today in Genome Research (www.genome.org), researchers have investigated the dynamics of virus populations in the human gut, shedding new light on the gut "virome" and how it differs between people and responds to changes in diet. "Our bodies are like coral reefs," said Dr. Frederic Bushman of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, senior author of the study, "inhabited by ...

DURHAM, N.C.—Inserting intra-aortic balloon pumps prior to angioplasty in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) does not reduce the scope of heart muscle damage, a condition referred to as infarct size, according to a new study conducted by Duke University Medical Center researchers. The findings were published online today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and presented at the European Society of Cardiology in Paris, France. The intra-aortic balloon pump works by increasing the blood supply to the heart, which reduces the heart's ...